Archive for Chickens

This morning I heard Olaf making a ton of noise out in her coop. I went out to investigate and found this little critter in there with her.

It was in the run with Olaf while she was flapping around and making a ton of noise. That noise is why I went outside to investigate.

I couldn’t get it to come out! It was cowering in the corner under the stairs. I opened the outer door and let the chickens come out which made them a lot happier. I tried banging on the wall behind him, moving far from the entrance, gentle pokes with a stick, nothing would get it to come out. It didn’t even want to play dead.

I did a bunch of research though and learned a lot about opossum. They are nocturnal omnivores. Apparently they don’t really try to attack chickens that often, they just really like their food. They have one of the bet memories for where to find food, better than dogs. They have a ton of teeth, 50! Most people only have 32 teeth. When they play dead it is an unconscious response. They roll over, get stiff, bear their teeth, and let out some bad smells. I’m glad it didn’t do this!

I had to leave for work this morning with it still in there. I hope he goes somewhere else by the time I get home! I will have to fix the hole it dug and figure out a way to dissuade it from coming back!

My chickens love cat food. It is their most favorite thing in the whole world. Anytime I open the garage door they come sprinting from wherever they are. They definitely know they aren’t supposed to be in there and will knock over the water bowl every single time in their frantic panic in trying to get out when I try to shoo them away.

This super inquisitive young deer was wandering around my yard trying to figure out what my young chicken (Anna) was. It would slowly approach to try to smell it. Anna would hop a few feet away. The deer would try again… This comedy act went on for a good 5 minutes.

This can join the cute images of interspecies babies meeting that the internet is so good at sharing.

I got myself some chickens this past summer. We raised them from 2 day old babies. When you get baby chickens you can order all girls, all boys, whatever you want. My town doesn’t allow roosters so I ordered all girls. I always imagine a line of grizzled old men and women who are standing along side a conveyor belt as little baby chicks fly by. They grab them, one in each hand, give em’ a squeeze and look at their private parts, and throw them into a box on their left or right depending on their sex. They are called Chicken Sexers and it is a real job. I believe they are about 80 percent accurate.

In the end I got 2 hens and 1 rooster. The rooster is the white one. He had a beautiful mane, like a lion and he was an Ameracauna. The brown one, Anna, is a Buff Orpington, and the black one, Olaf, is a Black Astralorp. I bet you can imagine who picked out those names (Elsa, Anna, and Olaf). The cute little girl in the first picture.

One morning I heard a mysterious err-err-errrrr coming from my chicken coop. They were teenagers at this point and it was early for them to be crowing. I held out hope that it wasn’t a crow that I heard but just a loud hen making noise. It didn’t repeat again that day. But a few days later I heard it again. I wasn’t even sure which chicken it was… The fourth time I heard a noise I saw Elsa moving her head.

I held out hope that she was just a hen that crows (that is a real thing). Months past. She/he started crowing every single day. I started researching ways that I could get Elsa a new home but didn’t follow through on any of them just in case…

I knew I couldn’t keep him. I also knew that chickens are flock animals and don’t like to be lonely. Having only 2 chickens isn’t ideal to keep them happy. I had a chance to get one (for sure) hen from a friend at work and I jumped on it. Then the day came when Elsa started trying to make baby chicks with my hens.

I had no idea how I was going to deal with this. I tried calling farm animal rescues and they didn’t want them. A friend of mine at work occasionally slaughtered chickens to eat. he had offered to take him but was never ready to actually do it. The new chicken, Sally, was already totally stressed out from moving from her original hen house to my friends hen house for a couple nights and then into mine. Something you may not know about chickens is that every time a new one is introduced to the group, they re-sort out their pecking order. Not only was she totally stressed out from all that moving, and having to assert her position, but now she was being courted by a plucky rooster. It was the last thing she needed.

I started doing research about what is the most humane way to take care of this problem. I won’t share the details here but Elsa was laid to rest in the middle of the night in the best way we could hope for. My daughter doesn’t know the truth. As far as she is concerned, Elsa went to live somewhere else. She knew it was about to happen so she got her chance to say goodbye.

I know what you are thinking now. No, I didn’t make Elsa for dinner that night. My daughter would never forgive me if she found out years later that is what really happened.